1 For the end. Destroy not: by David, for a memorial, when he fled from the presence of Saul to the cave.
2 Have mercy, upon me, O God, have mercy upon me: for my soul has trusted in thee: and in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, until the iniquity have passed away. 3 I will cry to God most high; the God who has benefited me. Pause. 4 He sent from heaven and saved me; he gave to reproach them that trampled on me: God has sent forth his mercy and his truth; 5 and he has delivered my soul from the midst of lions' whelps: I lay down to sleep, though troubled. As for the sons of men, their teeth are arms and missile weapons, and their tongue a sharp sword.
6 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; and thy glory above all the earth. 7 They have prepared snares for my feet, and have bowed down my soul: they have dug a pit before my face, and fallen into it themselves. Pause. 8 My heart, O God, is ready, my heart is ready: I will sing, yea will sing psalms. 9 Awake, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I will awake early. 10 O Lord, I will give thanks to thee among the nations: I will sing to thee among the Gentiles. 11 For thy mercy has been magnified even to the heavens, and thy truth to the clouds. 12 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; and thy glory above all the earth.
About this text. This is Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1851 translation of the Septuagint — the Greek Old Testament the Orthodox Church reads, rather than the Hebrew text behind most English Bibles. It is in the public domain. Words in italics are ones Brenton supplied that the Greek does not have; he marked them so that a reader could tell the difference, and they are kept that way here. The numbered notes are his own. Its English is Victorian, and does not match the modern English of the New Testament pages on this site.
On the numbering. The Psalms are numbered here as the Septuagint numbers them, which is how Orthodox service books cite them. From Psalm 10 onward that is one behind a Hebrew-numbered Bible: Psalm 50 here is the Psalm 51 of most English Bibles. The Septuagint also carries a hundred and fifty-first Psalm, which those Bibles do not.